The council meeting felt like more
of a town hall-style forum when the taxi ordinance was discussed,
with Council President Greg Wheeler allowing for more of a free
flow of questions, comments and responses from the council, city
staff and the audience. At one point while the council was talking
directly to an audience member, City Clerk Shannon Corin admonished
the “peanut gallery” for speaking without being
recognized.

That led to several calls for an apology, including one from
John Larson, a Bremerton resident who was in the audience that
night. Larson, who also is Bremerton Parks Commission Chairman,
posted this on the City of Bremerton Citizen Watch’s Facebook
page:

To start Wednesday night’s Council meeting, Council President
Greg Wheeler made several decrees that I think made it clear he
would be calling the shots in the future when so-called “points of
order” come up. The bottom line is that I suspect that we won’t see
Council meetings as “free flowing” as the one on Aug. 6 concerning
taxis.

But on Wednesday night, after another call for an apology came
during public comment from Port Orchard resident Robert Parker,
Corin spoke up. She said she “felt horrible” over what she
said.

“It was an unfortunate use of words,” she said, choking back
tears. “I did not mean to insult or offend anyone in the use of
those words. Please forgive me.”

Just want to make it clear that my above referenced post expressed my personal opinion as one of the members of the audience and not that of my role as Chair of the Bremerton Parks and Recreation Commission or that of the Parks Commission. I was not in the audience nor able to watch last night’s meeting it on BKAT (not yet) so at this point I do not have a response to last night’s events.

Sounds to me like there was more than one person in the peanut gallery that night. What does this mean, “It should not have been written/referenced that way and people know better than that”? What people know better than that? Seems to me that it should never have been written that way and people know better than that!